Rhode aim to make experience count

GAELIC GAMES LEINSTER CLUB FOOTBALL FINAL :TOM COFFEY has been a wanted man all this week. He comes to the phone with a list of names he's promised to call back and talks openly and honestly about Sunday's Leinster club football final against Kilmacud Crokes.

Of course should Rhode lose, Coffey only half jokes, then he'll be a wanted man again next week - only for much different reasons.

Because there is, as Coffey is well aware, a great expectancy around Rhode as they seek to become the first Offaly club since Ferbane 22 years ago to lift the Leinster title. And for good reason.

Two years ago Rhode lost out in the Leinster final to Moorefield, the year they had won a third successive Offaly title. The year before that, 2005, Rhode pressed Kilmacud hard in the Leinster semi-final, forcing a draw. While they lost the replay, Kilmacud went on to win Leinster.

Now, having first won back the Offaly title with a victory over old rivals Tullamore, and then produced an impressive march to Sunday's final with wins over Portlaoise and Carlow's Éire Óg, there is reason to believe Rhode's time has come.

Except sport doesn't always work that way, and Coffey is understandably cautious about their chances. "For sure this team has put in a lot of hard work over the past number of years," he says, "and that was first reflected in them winning three-in-a-row. And coming back again this year, after losing last year. They've also the experience of losing the Leinster final to Moorefield two years ago.

"But we fully appreciate as well who we are playing on Sunday. Kilmacud have a very strong team, most of whom are of county standard. And they've got five or six subs equally as strong as the ones that are starting.

"I also believe it's their eighth game in a row in Parnell Park. And I think anyone you want to talk to would say that is unfair. It's not Kilmacud's call, obviously. It's a Leinster ruling. But when it comes to the Leinster final I think it should definitely be a level playing field, and a neutral venue.

"Even if Kilmacud had to come to Tullamore to play us it would have been unfair. I don't mind quarter or semi-finals, but the final should be neutral. It's such a big day for both clubs, and yet Leinster are the only ones who don't go for a neutral venue."

Coffey has some other concerns too. Despite the evident experience of the team, including the likes of Niall and Alan McNamee and Roy Malone, and the injection of Offaly's most exciting teenage talent Anton Sullivan, he will be missing centre back Shane Sullivan, who received a straight red card in the semi-final win over Éire Óg.

On Tuesday the Leinster Council rejected the appeal to have the red card rescinded: "Shane is a huge loss," says Coffey. "Seven years experience now with the Offaly seniors, and a very big player for us. So we're very disappointed not to have him on Sunday, because we feel he was harshly done at the time, and we're disappointed that he didn't succeed in his appeal either.

"The incident itself wasn't on video, but everything else around it definitely was. There were a lot of physical exchanges in the game and hard tackles, and as the day went, it was one of the minor ones. Worse had happened.

"And anytime you play this time of the year that's the way the game goes, more physical, and tougher. But we'll move on now. We've no major injuries, which is the positive thing."

Rhode's experience is further underlined by the fact they have only five changes from the team that played Kilmacud three years ago - or perhaps six, if Coffey is included, as this is his first year in charge.

The former county star, who retired in 2000, has been living in Rhode for the past 20 years, where he played his club football for four years having originally played with Ballyfore.

After retiring, he was a selector with the Offaly minors for three years, managed the Offaly under-21 team for two years (the grade in which he won an All-Ireland as a player), and also trained the Rhode minors at the same time.

"There's nothing more we can do now," he says of their preparations for Sunday. "This team has put 100 per cent in for a long, long time now, and we know we'll have to give it 100 per cent again to get the result we want on the day. We'll need the odd break too, but we're certainly not coming up to make up the numbers.

"Kilmacud have plenty of scoring talent in the likes of Mark Vaughan and Brian Kavanagh. They got three goals in the county final, goals against Navan, and goals are big scores at this time of the year. But being there for the second time is always a little different, or at least a help, because you learn perhaps from mistakes and try to correct them. Hopefully it will work out that way anyway."